


Just Beyond the Blinders

by theparanoidergosphere



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-21 23:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7409185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theparanoidergosphere/pseuds/theparanoidergosphere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fangs and eternal youth didn’t mold Caroline into the person she is, and it isn’t what drew Stefan and her together. Set in an alternate universe in which Katherine never turns Caroline into a vampire, the story traces the strengthening and evolution of Stefan and Caroline’s relationship through the turbulence of a world of vampires. Follows the major storylines of the seasons, with varying degrees of alteration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

_Caroline didn’t think anyone that handsome could exist in the real world. It was like James Dean had walked straight out of_ Rebel Without a Cause _and into their high school. He was star-struck worthy stunning, with the same swagger and effortless charm. He wasn’t just beautiful; he was the most beautiful. His footsteps left echoes, as if calling out to her._

_Come after me, they said._

_She was resolved. She felt it inside her like a desperate yearning, an ache that somehow only he could sooth. She had to grab him, and fast. Before anyone else could._

_Elena, worst of all._

_Elena, who managed to wear ‘wounded’ like skin-tight silk. An alluring, almost untouchable, elegance. Most people, she figured, would look like garbage after their parents died, but somehow Elena carried it with grace, mutated it into another aspect of her overall charm._

_Caroline’s eyes flicked to her feet instantly, blood rushing to her face with instinctive shame._

Well. Just reserved myself a space in Hell.

 

 

_Caroline spent the entirety of that first day trying to find out as much as she could about the mysterious young man in the leather jacket, anything to help her win him over._

_His name was Stefan Salvatore._

_He was a Gemini – kind, gentle (she’d have to push a little, he was probably shy)._

_His favorite color was blue (and she donned a blue top)._

_He came from a military family (and her mom was a police officer. That was basically the same, right?)_

_At the party in the woods that night, she forced drinks down her throat to help her façade of confidence._

_And in the end none of it mattered._

_He had cast her aside before she opened her mouth._

_“You and me – it’s not gonna happen.”_

_There it was. Finite. It didn’t matter what she did or said – they could always see right through her._

_Trash. Second-rate try-hard._

_Her eyes followed his path back to Elena. There wasn’t a thing she could’ve done; he’d seen her and that was it. His sights were set much higher than Caroline Forbes._

 

 

_When Stefan’s older brother came waltzing into the Grill later that night, right at the finale of her self-pitying, blubbering catastrophe, it felt like fate._

_His eyes were a clear shade of blue, his hair was dark, and his demeanor held more menace than his younger brother’s. But most importantly, he was interested. His smile was dark and insincere, but still he was watching her. It was odd, to be singled out of a crowd, but exhilarating. She grinned at him. After all, what is more perfect for a cast-aside wreck than the knock-off brother? She tried to drown out the sound of Stefan’s voice in her head with that of Damon Salvatore, asking her name._

You and me. It’s not going to happen.


	2. Chapter 2

“Don’t even think about it.”

“She knows, Stefan! She has to be eliminated.”

“We’ll compel her, it’ll be fine.”

“Are you kidding? Best friends with Elena, vampire connoisseur, and witchy Bonnie? And let’s not forget daughter to the Sheriff, head of the secret society of vampire haters. Like her kool-aid hasn’t been spiked with vervain for months.”

“We’re not killing her, Damon.”

“Oh for the love of GOD!”

“We’ll wait for the vervain to leave her system and then I’ll compel her.”

“In the time we’ve been having this conversation, Stefan,” it was times like these that Stefan particularly hated the sarcastic way Damon emphasized his name, “Barbie’s probably already back at the dream house tattling to mommy. Which means I’m going to have to kill both of them. A shame, really, I was starting to like Liz.”

“ENOUGH!” the bite to Stefan’s voice surprised even himself. “You aren’t killing Caroline or any member of her family. I will handle it.”

 

_The double date was going oddly smoothly. Stefan laughed alongside the three childhood friends as they shared old stories. They'd each share a comment, and then erupt in laughter. Eventually, however, Elena and Matt veered off the beaten path of memory lane and trailed off together as a twosome, reliving parts of their relationship in a trance of nostalgia. Stefan hardly minded. He understood his girlfriend’s powerful magnetism, and couldn’t blame Matt for his lingering stares._

_But Stefan had lived for long over a century, and had gained enough confidence to know that Matt wasn’t anything to be jealous of. Caroline, however, didn’t share his perspective. She laughed alongside the other two as long as she could before the weight of her discomfort forced her to stop. There was dejection in her laugh, beyond jealousy or pettiness. She glanced over to Stefan, maybe to read his reaction, maybe as a way to validate her own. He could feel the sadness radiating off of her like melancholic beams from a worn-out sun. A hazy, dimming ray of light. And it struck him -- hard._

_Suddenly, he wasn’t smiling._

_His eyes flicked to his girlfriend, caught in a fit of charming laughter. She brushed a strand of silky dark hair behind her ear, all the while her eyes were fixed on Caroline’s doe-eyed date._

_The uneasiness lingered. Stefan found it a little odd that Elena didn’t seem to notice. He found Caroline’s discomfort so haltingly obvious it was as though he could feel it himself, and he hardly knew Caroline. Elena and her had been best friends for years. As if she had been reading his mind, Caroline grabbed Elena and pulled her away to the bathroom._

_Stefan glanced up to Matt and smiled; Matt rolled his eyes in return, laughing awkwardly. “Sorry about this … Caroline can get pretty desperate for attention,” he laughed. “I just try to ignore it. She’ll come around soon.”_

_Stefan half-smiled uncomfortably. When the girls returned, Stefan paid close attention to the pink on Caroline’s cheeks, the fresh sheer on her lips, and the way her smile itself seemed painted on, and it left a bad taste in his mouth._

 

Damon scoffed, but rolled his eyes in defeat and raised his hands in surrender. “No longer my problem, brother. Whatever shit comes charging our way, that’s your issue, now.”

Stefan glared before storming away, letting his fist fly at the cheap wood of a corndog stand in frustration. The wood splintered. He didn’t wait for the musky 15-year-old manning the cash register to yell “bro! you gotta pay for that!”, but continued stomping forward in his rage.

He was angry, angry that Katherine had gotten Caroline, innocent bystander, average teenage girl – well, more than average; pretty exceptional, actually, with a 4 page resume to prove it – into this mess, angry at himself that he’d let it happen, that he hadn’t been watching closely enough.

He didn’t bother to consider the particularity of his anger, to muse about how he’d managed to foster a unique fondness for Caroline without even really noticing it himself. Those thoughts were too far beneath the surface of his concern to even reach his consciousness.

(They wouldn’t be contained forever. It was inevitable that they would break through the dam of his internalization and flood the forefront of his mind with a shocking power.) 


End file.
